1968 Hillman Minx Estate - 08/10/21 - Road Trip!

Excellent stuff there Seth! ;D

Nice work Seth, puts Madge to shame but I'm trying to buy a house at the moment so cannot spare cash or time to get her sorted.

well done that man......

Any plans yet to produce a copy of that brace Seth?

bloody stering reapir on the wing mate! and the eninge bay does look fantastic!

Thanks chaps /\

Another day in the dungeon and more metalwork on the front wings. Lower rear section has been missing for months. Finally got it back on today.



Those rusty marks at the top of the picture feature a bit later.



Then jumped over to the other front wing top which I had bought a repair panel for on ebay. Wasn't as bad as the other side but only did the top piece as that's all I had. I'm sure more holes are lurking further down and will have to make bits for that - didn't want to go there today.







Hmmm. 5 o'clock. Best make use of a full day under cover and investigate the crustyness back on the other wing.



Inner panel was also gone unsuprisingly so I chopped a chunk of that out too and made a quick repair.



Was starting to get late and I wanted to get to the Ace for the classic night so no photos of welding a new piece into the wing itself but here's how it ended.



And some paint on the other wing top too to keep it protected until I attack all the various bits with some filler and better matching paint in the coming couple of weeks.

The wing repairs are absolutely top notch. 10/10 - great work!

However, the drivers door bottom repair is feeble at best - I thought after all that faffing with the wings you'd know better than to just lash a cereal box over it. 2/10 - see me.

Wow!!! top work Seth. Good grinder skills!

Not had much to report here as I basically got fed up with spending all my time doing this bodywork and neglecting the Oxford. It all took longer than I'd wanted it to and so too late for my paint plans for this year. So the bodywork will stay as it is for now and perhaps get freshened up with new paint early next year.

Just been driving it instead ;D

But I had wanted to improve the rear suspension ever since I lowered it as once loaded up and towing the trailer tent it was basically on the stops. The leaf spring assisters helped but its a hassle to put them on and off each time I load it up. Plus I'd like it an inch or so lower under normal driving conditions but doing that would severely compromise load lugging ability.

A full on airbag set up is beyond my means at the mo and unnecesary too I reckon as I don't feel the need to park it on the floor. A conversation at the Ace some time last year reminded me of American made air shocks so I did some digging.

Monroe make these shocks with an in-built mini airbag that are designed for cars and pick-ups to let you maintain ride height when fully loaded. Exactly my situation. They are not a substitute for proper airbags and aren't ideal from an engineering point of view as you are basically putting some of the suspension loads through the shock mounts but I think they are fine if used sensibly. Plus I planned to fit something designed for a big US car to a smaller English one.

VIP has some fitted to a car in the dungeon but it was proving difficult to remove them due to seized fasteners so last week following Akku's thread on Rock Auto I looked them up and they had what I wanted in stock. Ordered on-line and two days later they were here.



A pair of shocks and some fittings.



I spent quite a bit of time looking at on-line catalogues form the Monroe website and reckoned these would be about right. The research was worthwhile. The Hillman shock is at ride height position here and the new one at near fully compressed so there is a fair amount of compression available. There weren't any shorter ones. The bushes in the eyes were also spot on.



So it literally only took a few minutes to unbolt the old shocks and fit these instead as they slid straight on the Hillman's mounts. Was plenty of clearance all round though I will keep an eye on the handbrake cable as its a little closer than ideal to the drivers side one.



Then came plumbing. I had to put the passenger side one with the port facing out as it was too close to the exhaust the other way round. Since the tube then contacts the chassis rails quite close by I passed it through some windscreen washer tubing as an extra layer of protection. Will also keep an eye on this. Worst thing that happens if a tube ruptures is that you loose the spring assistance. The shocks will still work as shocks.

Drilled a couple of holes under the back seat for the tubes to pass through (grommets too) then run them to the tee piece and air line fitting.



I've fitted this though the edge of the back seat riser so it is easy to get at but out of the way and unlikely to be damaged.



Resullts? Well, unladen with 20psi (min recommended) I had 51cm to the rear arch.



With 90psi pumped in this rose to...



54cm You can stick 140psi in them too but my compressor doesn't go that far!

I'll see how I get on with them and may ultimately make it a more automated process with a controllable valve and permanently fitted compressor.